Leona Kinsey's disappearance could be tied to Mexican cartels

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(NewsNation) — Leona Kinsey walked out of her home in October 1999 and vanished, but police told NewsNation exclusively there is a new person they’re interested in talking to in connection with the decades-old case.

Leona Kinsey’s disappearance

On Oct. 25, 1999, Kinsey walked out of her trailer home in LaGrande, Oregon, and disappeared. A member of the Puyallup Tribe of Indians, Kinsey left a pot of coffee on the stove, bananas rotting on the counter, a carton of cigarettes in the freezer and her beloved pets in the yard. There were no signs she wasn’t planning on going back.

But, Kinsey was involved in the drug scene, both using and selling, according to LaGrande Police Department Lt. Jason Hays.

“It’s unfortunate, but she was heavily involved in the use and sale of methamphetamines,” Hays said. “It’s reasonable to say she got a call when she was at home, from someone she knew, to come to the Albertson’s parking lot. When she got to the Albertson’s parking lot, she vaporized.”

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Police say Kinsey was known to use that parking lot for drug deals. Her friend, Nancy, was the first to report her missing. She told police that Kinsey had plans that night to meet a man named Juan, or John, Pena-Llamas.

Searching for Leona Kinsey

Pena-Llamas was her drug dealer, police say, with ties to a Mexican cartel.

There was also at least one rumor around town that Kinsey was an informant or that she had a drug debt, possibly owed to a cartel. Carolyn DeFord, Kinsey’s daughter, said there had been a previous incident of vandalism.

“A couple weeks before she went missing, someone spray-painted the word ‘narc’ on the front of her home,” she said. “I just want the truth. Was it a drug debt? Was she an informant? What happened, how and why?”

Pena-Llamas spoke to police but denied harming Kinsey. He failed to show up later for a voluntary polygraph. Police said he was arrested on sex abuse charges in 2006, sent to prison and then deported to Mexico.

Days after Kinsey went missing, her vehicle was found at the Albertson’s parking lot. But the store manager told police it may have been moved to that location.

Ties to a Mexican cartel

Now, police have revealed exclusively to NewsNation there’s another person they’re looking for.

“Leona’s best friend Nancy said that Leona got her drugs also from a person named Jose,” Hays told NewsNation. “Everybody that we talk to doesn’t know who Jose is. If he, too, is another drug supplier for her, it’s also reasonable to think he may have something to do with it. What I don’t know is, did Juan and Jose know each other?”

Pena-Llamas’ ex-wife told police that he had boasted that although he didn’t kill Kinsey, he had somebody do it. Police, search-and-rescue teams and cadaver dogs combed a hillside and pond about 35 miles from town and also searched a place where Pena-Llamas had sexually abused another woman, but they found nothing.

Leona Kinsey with her daughter, Carolyn DeFord, and her granddaughter. (Shayna Richard)
Leona Kinsey disappeared in 1999. (Shayna Richard)
Leona Kinsey was involved with selling drugs, possibly in connection with a Mexican cartel. (Shayna Richard)

Recently, the FBI was able to get proof that Pena-Llamas was alive and living in Manzanillo, Mexico. But because he is only a person of interest in the case, police can’t question him unless he crosses back into the U.S.

“If Leona’s disappearance has anything to do with the Mexican cartel, that is very problematic to me,” Hays said. “They do horrific things to make people disappear, like put them in acid vats and liquify their body and flush them down the drain.”

Leona Kinsey’s legacy

DeFord said when she was just a little girl, she and her mother talked about how Kinsey wanted to be buried when she was gone.

“She said, I just want to go out to the woods and die naturally and let the beetles and the bugs and the coyotes feed their babies with my body,” DeFord said. “I was just disgusted, like no.”

But now, that memory is what gives her comfort as she continues to search for her mother.

“She’s likely on this hillside out there, according to rumors around town,” she said. “And there’s nowhere else she’d rather be. There are these beautiful mountains.”

Kinsey’s disappearance has left a profound influence on her daughter’s life. DeFord is a national advocate for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and People and a founder of Missing and Murdered Native Americans.

After so much time has passed, she continues to hope for justice even if it’s long overdue.

“What does justice look like after 25 years?” DeFord asked.

Police think time may ease people’s fears about coming forward. That’s what gives police and Kinsey’s daughter hope.

“I miss her very much and I’m ready for her to come home,” DeFord said, “and I’m ready for justice and I’m ready to send her on her journey in a good way.”